The 84 bird species currently identified in the core zone include one pair of Japanese golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos japonica, three nesting pairs of black woodpecker Dryocopus martius, both of which are designated as Natural Monument and Special Bird species due to their rarity, one pair of mountain hawk-eagle Spizaetus nipalensis orientalis, also a Special Bird species and the rare harlequin duck Histrionicus histrionicus.

Martin Collinson compared David Luneau's Arkansas video footage from April 2004 of the supposed Ivory-billed Woodpecker with fresh footage of the Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus, a superficially similar black and white species.